One of the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union,
now sovereign.

The people of the area speak Turkish dialects, because this
is the region from which Turks emerged to create the Seljuk and
Ottoman Empires and rule many states in the Islamic world.

Turkestan was conquered by the Russians from the mid 19th
century. In 1855 Meset on the Syr Daria was conquered; the Emirate
of Tashkent in 1866; Bukhara in 1868 and Merv in 1884. The Russians
ruled and settled. The settler population is beginning to return
to Russia.

The total population is about 2.5 million.

A movement for a pan-Turkic association with Uzbekistan, Chinese
Turkestan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkey seemed a possibility
as the Soviet Union declined. However, the extreme cult of the
Leader has probably put a stop to this.

The republic contains within its border some of the most important
ancient Islamic cultural centers. Bokhara was a center of Islamic
learning in pre-Russian times. There are many exile communities
living outside the Soviet Union including some in Afghanistan
and Saudi Arabia.

Formal independence was declared in October 1991. However,
Turkey is gaining cultural influence, but probably no political
influence. The script is changing from Cyrillic to Latin as in
Turkey.

The government is still controlled by the Communist party
(Renamed Democratic Party). The president was elected unopposed
(if he had had less than 50% of the votes he would have been
defeated). Reporters say that the apparatus of Communist rule
remains in force. Opposition parties are prevented from organizing,
though a Peasant Party sympathetic to the ruling party has been
allowed. The whole atmosphere of the Brezhnev era remains: corruption,
lack of democracy, KGB (local) plus Cult of Personality: leader
called himself Turkmenbashi (Leader).

Another unopposed election December 1999 and in fact the President
then declared himself Turkmenbashi the Great,
President for Life.

Could there be a revolution as has occurred in nearby Kyrgyzstan
(Kirgizia)? It is less likely because the total brutal control
exercised by the government.

The Turkmenbashi died at the age of 65 on 21 December 2006,
apparently leaving no successor. Will there now be a democratic
revolution? Not if Putin has anything to do with it. A successor
was "elected" and conditions have somewhat improved,
with some of the more lunatic chages being reversed - naming
months after the Bashi and his family for example - and allowing
foreign publications again. There is cautious optimism.

It is said to have the strongest economy of the former Soviet
Asian republics. Good supplies of oil and gas promise a standard
of living comparable to the Gulf states, if they can be exploited
with modern western technology and if a pipeline to the west
via Iran and Turkey can be built. But rebuilding the Soviet industrial
system is creating problems. Cotton was ordered by the Soviet
system on land which is not perhaps suitable. Previously all
this wealth went to Moskva and the republic was poor. But money
now goes on prestige projects, rather than essentials.

There are discussions of building transport links - road or
rail -through Afghanistan to Pakistan to reduce dependence on
Russia. A rail link to Iran (Mashhad) opened in May 1996. This
will open up the whole area and detach it from the influence
of Russia.

An oil pipeline to China is now planned after contracts were
signed in September 1997. This may change the balance of power
in Central Asia.

Its importance to the rest of the world is that it controls
one fifth of the world's gas supplies. There will be a competition
between Russia, China and western interests to gain control of
these assets. Thus the successor to Niyazov is important, but his policies
as yet unknown.

None of the wealth of these industries reached the ordinary
people as it was all syphoned off by the Dictator.

The health system collapsed as the Dictator refused funding
for the state hospitals, and the mass of people cannot afford
private medicine. Plague has been reported as well as many other
infectious diseases. There is a danger that this state could
become a source of infectious diseases threatening its neighbors.
The successor regime is easing some of these lunatic policies
but it takes time.

Secret police still in action and no freedom of association
or expression. The situation is much worse than it was in the
last days of the Soviet Union. Random arrests, executions, torture
and general ill treatment is the policy of the Dictator. Will
it improve after the Bashi has died? Everyone hopes so.